Scent Diary: 1.4 – 7.4.2019

GAK! This week has been a bit of a write off. Sick and bad tooth.
Did see some mates, wear a bunch of fabulous perfume and do some stuff but it mostly went by in a blur of drugs and wishing to be in my Couch Cocoon. Jin got better and then worse, poor bugger.

Scent Diary: 1.4 – 7.4.2019

Monday 1:

April Fools Day. I’m not leaving the house this morning except to walk the dogs.

SOTMorning: Wan Chai by Teone Reinthal. So thick, rich and luscious. A funky amber by an Aussie naturals perfumer.

Because the house was already spotless from Saturday all I’ve done is some clothes washing and the dishwasher.

Writing TRVIA Q&A. By 3.30pm I have the Games and Jackpots all finished and the base 20 Q&A done. Tonight I just have to write 80 more Q&A and I’m done. Woo Hoo!

SOTAfternoon: Tonka Imperiale by Guerlain

Did some couch & TV time watching Peaky Blinders.

Jin came home and we had more Vietnamese Rolls.

It’s time this wobbly back tooth came out. We have been fighting to save it for YEARS and now it’s at the point where it’s creating trouble for me chewing, getting in the way, scraping, jamming and hurting. I’ve left a message for the dentist.

Tuesday 2:

I’m getting sick. I can feel it. Cue annoying five year old whinging child noises.

Booked my wobbly tooth removal for Thursday.

I need some perfume to make this shit day seem better.

SOTMorning: Mitzah by DIOR. 5 big chest sprays. It does make me feel a little better. BLOODY HELL! This stuff is gorgeous.

Made a Couch Cocoon, some Tea and Snacks. Watched Peaky Blinders.

Jin came home.

I had a VERY hot bath, which calmed my slightly feverish head but made my body sweat.

SOTEvening: Knize Ten bought this decade. Someone was talking about it somewhere recently and I found my bottle. Smells excellent. Soft, birchy leather and some flowers.

Work was so much fun. We had 72 players this evening and loads of rowdy fun.

Jin is fast asleep so I fed & walked the dogs.

Cuppa chamomile tea and bedtime.

Wednesday 3:

Today went in a blur of rose and berry infused tea with slices of ginger and lemon in the pot.

On the couch watching Peaky Blinders. I’m already up to Season 4.

Bathtime

SOTEvening: Vintage Miss Dior EdT

Gave myself a bunch of drugs.

Work was fun. Love Greystanes Inn.

Home and doing a little blogging but my mind isn’t very focussed and I’m taking forever to do even the simplest tasks.

SOTBed: Eau My Soul by 4160 Tuesdays. YUM! The gorgeous Sarah popped it into my hand last year. When I got back from my travels everything went into a box. I’ve just rediscovered this and a couple of others. YAY!

Thursday 4:

Amouage Gold Man

Lazy morning. Made savoury French Toast. Same as usual but with no sugar or maple syrup and with cheese on top. MMMMM

Met Rose for a cuppa in the Macquarie St Hospital and while drinking it got a call from the dentist saying he was running early. Off we popped and had my tooth out in a trice. Isn’t he the most gorgeous dentist ever.

We wandered around some paintings in the NSW State Library and I showed Rose the reading gallery.

Then we went to St Mary’s Cathedral where Saint Rose made an appearance.

Jin met us and drove home because I’d had a hefty local anaesthetic.

I’ve been told I’m only allowed luke-warm mushy food. Nothing hot or cold. Also nothing I really have to chew. My first thought was a Chinese Omelet but our local is closed for renovations. Then I thought McDonalds!!! I haven’t had it since September. Surely this counts as an emergency? No…….. ??

OK, so there’s another Chinese not far away, I had that. The Spring Rolls were disgusting and the King Prawn Omelette had tiny prawns that I couldn’t see to take them out. GRRR! The Lemon Chicken and Egg Fried rice were yum though.

I’m done now. Taking some night Codral and off to bed.

Friday 5:

Woke. Dogs.

SOTDay: Vintage Y by Yves Saint Laurent. Its a softer galbanum floral chypre for days when the big guns are too much.

Went to shave at 1am and the hot water cord jumped off the under tap area and started gushing. I was so surprised I ran to wake Jin up and lost all ability to make coherent sentences and just kept screaming “JIN! THE BATHROOM EXPLODED!! FUCK!! JIN! THE BATHROOM! FUCK! FUCK! JIN! JIN! FUCK! JIN! BATHROOM!” Poor guy was sound asleep, had to run into the very hot water and burn his hands & feet to stop it. My HERO! Once fixed he went straight back to bed and was snoring in under a minute. Amazing.

There’s very little chance of me sleeping for a while after that kind of excitement. I’m turning the TV back on.

SOTBed: Liberté by Cacharel

Saturday 6:

SOTMorning: Velours by YSL

Jin and I had some running around to do. Haircuts, pants and alterations, buying the new plumbing for my bathroom.

Came home and Michael Borg came over for lunch and sniffs.

Jin fixed the bathroom and back to his sick bed.

SOTAfternoon: Cuir Amethyste by Armani Prive

Kath, Michael, Rose and I went to see Vossco play viola at the Strathfield Symphony. It was fun.

We took him out for dinner at Liu Rose after. We were the last table standing at the end. My Fortune Cookie was nice eh?

Home. Crashed.

Sunday 7:

Woke up this morning at around 9am in the spare room and had no idea how I got there. Amusingly it was Paris who walked in to wake me up. VERY dislocated mentally.

Jin woke and told me last night I got home, chatted randomly, cleaned my teeth, called Paris and we went to the spare bedroom and fell asleep.

I have no memories of any of this. Last thing I remember is Vossco dropping me off at the front door after driving me home from dinner after the symphony.

SOTMorning: Bulgari Eau thé Vert

For brunch I made Jin and me some Sausage & Onions on Bread with Mustard Pickle, Hot English Mustard and Seeded Mustard base and BarBQ Sauce. SO DELICIOUS!!

Bathtime.

SOTEvening: Veil by Oliver & Co

Work ws unbelievable. The place was jam packed with families for the big Easter Raffle. We still did trivia. It was fun.

Got to lick my mate Marc. YAY!

Home and walked the dogs.

SOTBed: Shalimar extrait by Guerlain

It’s YOUR turn. What’s happening in your world?

Did you do anything Fragrant, Fun, Friends, Family or even had some less than Fabulous news you want to share? Now’s the time, in the comments below.
We love to read what’s happening to YOU.
Portia xx

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57 thoughts on “Scent Diary: 1.4 – 7.4.2019”

I’m sorry about your bathroom explosion, but that made me laugh! Thank goodness for Jin being able to fix things. Of all your wonderful fragrances this week, I most envy vintage YSL Y. What a wonderful fortune reading, especially with your upcoming travels!
My week has been very ordinary and uneventful, but sometimes that is very peaceful. Fragrance-wise I have been visiting and re-visiting retros. I so wish I had been more adventurous in my youth and as into sampling as I now am! This week I received my purchased small bottles of Vivienne Westwood Boudoir and Naughty Alice; Estee Lauder Beautiful, Noa, and more Fath de Fath because I need to stockpile that beauty. I’ve also worn Oscar Esprit and Chanel 1957 quite a bit. I stopped by Macy’s and sampled Azuree, Estee, and White Linen.
Feel better soon Portia!

I love boring and peaceful weeks…those are the best kind for me.
Love that you are visiting all of your retros…we were scent twins in Noa. How did you get on with the Estees? I am sure they are reformulated but it must have been really nice to visit. I grew up on Estee Lauder fragrances as there were copious amounts of EL bottles strewn throughout our house when I was growing up.

Quiet weeks are very grounding, aren’t they? It’s allowed me more time to read, about fragrance!
Sniffing Azuree was exactly as you predicted Brigitte. Nordstroms didn’t have a tester bottle, and they suggested I visit Macy’s. The SA didn’t have a bottle at first and was puzzled why I’d want to smell it, warning”it’s very green.” Then all of a sudden she remembered, and pulled out a box from behind the counter! It had the EL oldies including Azuree. I liked it more then I thought, as it is not my style of perfume. The dry down was gorgeous and I couldn’t stop sniffing my arm later in the day. I really enjoyed Estee and White Linen as well. (I ordered a small bottle of White Linen from fragrancenet). I wore White Linen and Beautiful many years ago, and just received a little bottle of the new formulation of Beautiful which isn’t as beautiful as I remember!

ha ha! I had the same experience in Macy’s a few years ago! She did NOT want me to test Azuree or any of the oldies saying I was too young for such a perfume but I insisted and shut her up when It told her that I was really old and wore them in the 1970s…because it said cologne or EDT on the bottle I doused myself…big mistake…I stunk up the place and even my husband made a face when I met up with him later at the mall. But the drydown was stuck on my jacket for weeks and my gosh it was glorious!!!!! Isn’t it amazing how those older fragrances in lower concentrations were such powerhouses? It makes me wonder at the truth of some current houses claiming their prices are high because they are selling “extrait” versions. I too wore White Linen and Beautiful and also Pleasures when it came out. I also wore White Linen Breeze. I look forward to hearing your thoughts when your fragrancenet package arrives.

Love your story and that you appreciate the Macy’s scent sampling! I just read the introduction of Neil Chapman’s Perfume book, and he talks about time-traveling and era-hopping which is what I’ve been doing with perfume recently. The world of perfume is never boring and always a pleasure. You are exactly correct and what I love about perfumes from before the past two decades; they last, even EDT! The dry down stays with you all day, never fleeting.

It really is! I’m so glad Brigitte encouraged me to sample Azuree. I may need to trawl ebay and find a small bottle or decant! Or even purchase a small bottle of the current formulation. The sillage is beautiful.

I hope you get a bottle! The beauty also is that the ELs are still highly affordable and could easily beat out many niche offerings. It’s a bit surprising to me that very few perfume peeps mention them. maybe because those pesky SAs steer everyone away from the testers ? 😉

Estee Lauder’s past perfumes are gorgeous, and surprisingly very affordable for the quality and longevity. Youth Dew has been my favorite worn for years and lasts all day.
Interestingly, This winter I purchased a bottle of EL Aerin Amber Musk, and as pretty as it is, I can’t smell it after an hour sadly.

YAY Kathleen,
It has made me laugh since but I was utterly gobsmacked at the time. Poor Jin.
You have been wearing, trying and stockpiling some gorgeous beauties.
Oh yes, YSL Y is so good. Next time you win remind me to pop some in for you.
Portia xx

oh dear, P! I hope that cold leaves you soon and that you were able to get the water situation under control.
Busy and draining work week both physically and emotionally. I went to work yesterday all day for a training. Fortunately I won’t be doing that again for a long while.

Perfume wise had a groundhog week in NOA. As Portia said I needed to recalibrate so just went with something extraordinarily pretty and easy. Just in time two packages arrived. Thank you AnnieA for a full bottle of original formulation Reglisse Noire…this one I am hoarding too (along with the travel size Portia sent me) because it’s original formulation. I will wear both bottles on my birthday at the end of the month. Also, thunked a few samples too.

Yesterday my bestie in the city sent me my birthday present and insisted that I open it immediately….chocolate covered marzipan and yummy tea but (are you reading this Marcella???) a honkin’ 200 ml bottle of Pour Un Homme partially used but enough for both me and Mr. Marzipan to douse in (he likes it too and wants to know if it makes me frisky like First Cut-LOL!!!) PLUS A DECANT OF VINTAGE NO 19….takes me back to when I was a preteen in the 70s…would you believe I had a canister of this and no 5 and no 22 and Cristalle when I was 12 years old? I was born an old soul…there is nothing like vintage….Tara of a Bottled Rose was right (go pop over APJers and read her recent post)…. and then on top of everything else she sent me a partially used bottle of Tracy Reese…this has extreme sentimental value for me because 1- when I worked for a CPA firm in the garment district she was one of our clients and 2- it reminds me so very much of Antonia’s Flowers which was probably my first niche fragrance at age 18 and I wore it during those years (mid to late 80s) working in Manhattan…holy crap! when I smelled Tracy Reese I was immediately catapulted back to that time…. Kate, if you are reading this, I lied on your last post…these two fragrances hit me like a punch in the gut but in a really good way….I am thoroughly going to enjoy wearing them….and finally, I won a decant from the ever lovely Portia this week…..all in all it’s been a wonderful week for me fragrance wise which makes up for the crap of work.

You wrote about no 19 so eloquently and now that I have it to play with I am right on board with all that you said!
and yes, perfume friends are the best! I am so blessed to have a few whom I consider to be very dear friends 🙂

WOW! You might have been a single frag user for the week but you sure did have some fragrant excitement at Chez Brigitte.
Sounds like an excellent week. Fragrance, friends and happy memories, lovely.
Portia x

Ha ha ha, I can almost picture you running screaming like a banshee in the wee small hours😂 That’s the sort of night time drama that’s very unwelcome. Luckily Jin is a handyman (every home should have one) and he got it sorted. I hope you both get better from whatever horrible lurgy is ailing you. Better now than it hitting while you’re on your big honeymoon. That wouldn’t be very honey! As usual you’re smelling exquisite regardless. My week has been uneventful, work is busy but at least it keeps me from doing naughty stuff😉 I’ve been enjoying my new acquisitions tremendously, and the sample and decant ordering is still going full belt. I may have to stop it because I’m smelling too much stuff that I WANT in fb. I’m a greedy beeatch.

I have just ordered four more: Santal Nabataea, Sweet Oriental Dream, La Poudre and Teint de Neige in edp, the one I got last week was edt and the seller told me that the edp is oomphed up quite a bit. I guess it could be said that I’m on a powder kick about now☺️ I put some of the Teint on Smally yesterday and omg it was like a host of angels started singing.

ooo Nice! Marcella sent me a decant of Santal Nab and it was fab! Now that you mentioned it, I am on a bit of a musky powdery kick myself these days…I bet Smally smells amazing in your Teint and I bet she looked like an angel too 🙂

Quiet week mostly, but damn, I have been smelling good. Ably assisted by the lovely perfume parcel from CQ with a spray of ISM and omfg some amazing Silence The Sea (No, I won’t use the smushed together name. Sue me, Helena C!). And THEN i also got to try a pre-release sample of the new Papillon Perfumery scent. Which is delicious.

Otherwise, mostly black-dog wrangling, plus prepping for my referee’s exam which was today (think I did OK), and starting to get sorted for the big trip to Hong Kong. We fly out later this week. Squeeee!

Great variety in this post. Thanks. SOTMorning: Wan Chai by Teone Reinthal sounds interesting. Just noticed their website and business is going through a transition. Can’t wait to see that outcome.
Hope you two feel better soon. I’m just back from Vietnam where I purchased all kinds of local essential oils and other goodies. I’m making a new range right now. I think it will be a duo. Brendan, Reminiscent Lab.

You have the best looking dentist I have ever seen. I might move to Australia. This week was jammed with work and I know I sprayed various things profusely to fend off the hordes, but can’t for the life of me now remember what. Bruma for sure one day and another was Tobacco Rose (got compliments!). Today I wore Hendley’s Mown, rich and comforting. That’s as far as my brain will take me!